Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government today announced relief
measures worth over Rs 7,000 crore for India's ailing sugar industry,
within eight days of the Bharatiya Janata Party's defeat in the By-Elections held in Uttar Pradesh -- the top sugar-producing state in the northern cane belt.
Last week, the BJP lost bypolls in Noorpur and Kairana -- the first is an assembly constituency, and the second a Lok Sabha constituency where dues owed to sugarcane farmers were a key election issue. These local polls were seen as a bellwether for next year's general elections.
These measures -- which were announced at a press conference held in New Delhi -- include funding worth Rs 1,175 crore to help warehouses store 30 lakh tonnes of buffer stock, the fixing of a minimum price (Rs 39 per kg of sugar), and a soft loan of Rs 4,500 crore to promote ethanol production (to be refunded in five years' time).
Plus, the Centre will suffer a burden of Rs 1,332 crore since there won't be any repayment on the soft loan in the first year.
Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a "personal interest" in the issue, and pointed to a surplus as the reason for falling sugar prices.
India is home to as many as 5 crore cane growers, whose numbers make them an influential political lobby.
Last week, the BJP lost bypolls in Noorpur and Kairana -- the first is an assembly constituency, and the second a Lok Sabha constituency where dues owed to sugarcane farmers were a key election issue. These local polls were seen as a bellwether for next year's general elections.
These measures -- which were announced at a press conference held in New Delhi -- include funding worth Rs 1,175 crore to help warehouses store 30 lakh tonnes of buffer stock, the fixing of a minimum price (Rs 39 per kg of sugar), and a soft loan of Rs 4,500 crore to promote ethanol production (to be refunded in five years' time).
Plus, the Centre will suffer a burden of Rs 1,332 crore since there won't be any repayment on the soft loan in the first year.
Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a "personal interest" in the issue, and pointed to a surplus as the reason for falling sugar prices.
India is home to as many as 5 crore cane growers, whose numbers make them an influential political lobby.
India is the world's biggest consumer of sugar, and the No. 2 producer after Brazil
Sugar prices have dropped to their lowest in 28 months, exacerbating sugar mill's financial woes
Citing their poor financial health, mills have said they are unable to pay cane farmers on time
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